A blog by Ken Harrison

Why I won’t Use the Google Family Group Plan

When I first found out about Google’s Family Group Plan for
Google Play I was thrilled. There was finally a way for me to easily share my e-books
and music with my boyfriend. This was especially interesting because we’d
watched teh first season of Man in the High Castle and
were both interested in reading the book. I found the title in Play Books for
$9.99, downloaded the sample and read through it before purchasing the e-book
(which has DRM).

The dreaded DRM, good for the industry but bad for consumers.
The only way I can share the book is to have my boyfriend read it on my tablet,
which kind of defeats the purpose of buying an e-book. Annoying, yes. I could
look into stripping the DRM, but that is illegal and the risk of getting caught
just to share a book isn’t worth it. God I hate DRM.

And then I found out about Google’s Family Share Plan and
thought that was the answer. Sign me up! All you do is make a family group and
add up to five people to it. Not all purchases can be used with the Family
Share Plan, but Man in the High Castle
is one that can. I was all-in for this until I found out about the need to have
a credit card associated with the plan that anybody associated with your group can
use to make purchases. Really? Not only that, but that’s the card they have to
use for all future family share plan purchases. That turned me off.

Why should anybody have to monitor a credit card to be able
to share their Play purchases with friends and family? Come on Google, you’re
better than this. Maybe Google wants the credit card to be able to track the
Family Plan account, but they can find another way to do that. Make up a
number, use the e-mail for the Play account, anything. I don’t suggest anybody
use the Family Group Plan.